Gov. Bobby Jindal, Republicans turn attention to immigration reform

GOP members are turning to immigration reform to upgrade a party image tainted by negative rhetoric toward Latinos this election.

Mitt Romney reopened fresh wounds when he said President Barack Obama was reelected because he bribed minority groups with “extraordinary gifts from the government.”

Comments like Romney’s get in the way of the conservative message and turn Latinos off to the GOP, said Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, the new chairman of the Republican Governor’s Association, during CNN’s “The Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer.”

“Republican candidates this year did a lot of damage to the brand,” Jindal said. ”As a party, we need to stop talking down to voters.”

WASHINGTON, DC - NOVEMBER 08: Latinos and immigrants participate in a rally on immigration reform in front of the White House on November 8, 2012 in Washington, DC. Immigrant rights organizations called on President Barack Obama to fulfill his promise of passing comprehensive immigration reform. (Photo by Mark Wilson/Getty Images)

So Jindal and other Republicans are taking a new look at immigration, and it’s nothing like the “self-deportation” approach that might have cost Romney the presidency.

Texas, home to 1,254 miles of the 1,900-mile-long U.S.-Mexico border and a staunch Republican state, is shedding GOP stereotypes and moving toward immigration reform in an attempt to ward off a potential Democratic takeover as the Latino population grows.

The movement is being spearheaded by Brad Bailey, a restaurant owner and political activist from Houston (who also uses E-Verify to check the citizenship status of his employees). His proposed immigration solution includes a temporary guest worker program, securing the border and reforming Social Security cards to prevent counterfeiting.

Bailey said a guest worker program would help employers find workers willing to take the jobs American won’t and help boost the economy. That’s something that gets Republicans to listen, and they did.

The Republican Party of Texas adopted the temporary worker program in its platform in June. The national party followed in August during the convention in Tampa.

Bailey said he’s watched as disbelieving Tea Partiers and GOP women’s groups come around to the reforms. Skeptics slowly uncross their arms when he talks them through the nuts and bolts.

“It’s resonated with people,” Bailey said. “A lot of people want to see solutions. They don’t want to see government gridlock.”

Bailey said it’s an issue that needs to be solved across the aisle but has divided the parties as they battle for the Latino vote. There’s also a chance it might loose momentum as Congress deals with the impeding fiscal cliff.

But especially now, there still might be a chance Republicans can work with Democrats to help fix the broken immigration system, said Arturo Sarukhan, Mexico’s ambassador to the U.S.

“The time is ripe not only because of the lessons being…derived from what happened a week ago in the United States, but because this new lay of land and the political muscle of Latino vote,” Sarukhan said.

3 Responses

Americans work all their lives, in good times and bad times as we have currently, then illegal aliens broach our borders or just jump on an international jet and once here demand rights and the majority of these used up politicians reward them. I am placing prominence on the term illegal alien, not a legal immigrant. ILLEGAL ALIEN is a far cry from a responsible person who commits themselves to follow the law, come here and is pandered to by the court system, declaring we must educate their children or allow them to access our health care system. Legal immigrants come here and are settled here with a green card, except illegal aliens come here disrespect our laws. Although a majority are from South of our border, approximately 46 percent come by aircraft with no intentions of returning even though they came here on a visitor’s visa. Two question remain open to momentous decisions, why isn’t illegal entry never been asserted as a class 1 felony, or why overstays are never tracked? It strange those crewmembers that jump ship or stay without permission are hunted down by ICE. It is obvious to me that these two situations above, that illegal entry being a civil offense or the no mechanism to track visa overstays was deliberate. YES deliberate! Nothing has ever made any sense since the original blanket amnesty of the 1986 Reagan dynasty?

The responsibility for the estimated population of illegal aliens of 20 million plus, is more to the truth than the exaggerated 11 million. This number has remained the same for the past decade and it’s impossible to believe it? Numbers are manufactured by the overwhelming Socialistic journalists, editorial staff or reporters in the national press, or even several administrations over the years. Initially the 1986 Immigration Reform and Control Act (IRCA) gave 2.7 million illegal migrants and immigrants a path to citizenship, but beginning of 1997 those former illegal aliens had been totally replaced by new illegal aliens, and that the unauthorized population again stood at more than 5 million; through fraudulent applications and poor inspections by agents of the government. Badly regulated the procedures were not observed and the fact that the so called strict laws to prosecute illegal wrongdoers or the employers who hired them, was never enforced and the funding almost none existent and immigration surged.

The likelihood of President Obama pressing for another insane path to citizenship for all illegal aliens already here, because of his promise will have huge major costs. Then we have nonchalant Republicans looking towards their future, who are now climbing into the a similar solution, hoping that if they kowtow to the minorities that they will gain headway. All I see is a massive flood of more and more illegal usurpers looking for a cheap ride from the U.S. taxpayer. Eventually, we will all pay in higher taxes that will be gleaned from citizens, whether black, white or any other racial makeup as another blanket amnesty will attract even more people. The only people, who will not pay a cent towards the new onslaught, are the “FREELOADERS” the people who think working for a living is a bad ideology.

Millions more desperate, people will think its open season on America, and the word will be shouted out and not just South of our border, but worldwide. Our only and final chance to stop the overwhelming rush of foreign nationals is to enforce our border. Former President Bush enacted the 2006 Secure Fence Bill which funded a two layer fence similar to the one of separating Israel from its enemies. A double parallel fence that in the long run could halt massive amounts of drugs and foreigners into our sovereign nation. In between each 15 foot fence would be a rapid interdiction tracks for the U.S. Border Patrol agents. For interior enforcement the full impact of “THE LEGAL WORKFORCE BILL” It contains E-Verify to oversee and audit businesses that hire illegal aliens and bring them to court. Immediately we must nurse an amendment into the 14th Amendment, which is a commonsense to stop pregnant females from illegally entering America, then claiming citizenship for a child. Not only do you pay for all the amenities of deliveries, but you pay for contrived citizenship of a child and everything from then on is on a birthright or naturalized citizens back of paying the bills and even Green Card Holders are not exempt.

We must prevent this from occurring anymore by adopting the “BIRTHRIGHT CITIZENSHIP BILL” that both parties have ignored and refused to place this bill to be read on the house floor. It stops the accommodation of illegal alien females from their kids getting instantaneous citizenship, by making it mandatory that one parent must be a citizen. Well it’s up to the American people now whether to keep this insanity rolling and taxpayers covering the expenses for these children, or demand from the Congress a change in the law. These children given citizenship are a stepping stone for their parents, to collect even more welfare. The more children they conceive, the less chance it is for the parents to be deported. In fact the more children mean extra welfare payments and additionally a carefully planned access to free housing—government sponsored. We can eradicate this nonsensical law and the hundreds of billions of dollars, going to our own impoverished. THESE ILLEGAL ALIENS COME HERE WITHOUT EVER PAYING TAXES, SOCIAL SECURITY, FICA AND OUR GOVERNMENT ALLOWS THEM TO STEAL OUR SAFETYNET AND REAP THE BENEFITS.

. If the taxpaying populace ever realized that the common denominator for the DREAM ACT AS IMPOSED BY PRESIDENT OBAMA was because of the illicit original introduction into our country from wherever, were decade’s illegal children or the unborn smuggled into our country.

OH! Incidentally—America is already bankrupt? How can you have a 16 Trillion deficit, with just about every state on the edge of insolvency and stating we are not already bankrupt? The feds can print as many dollar bills as they like, but China is our landlord now and our creditor. Whatever the fiscal cliff is, we have already passed that demarcation point. Of course come December the two political groups will come to some compromise, but it will be all a massive big lie. A fabrication of the fact that the U.S. government can juggle numbers, move the zero’s around to make it look good to the American population. They have lots of committees, pat each other on their back, congratulating each other on cutting back on taxes and spending, but in truth it will be one big carnival. AS usual, they will pass the astronomical dollar figure onto the next generations. First and foremost I personally think we need a restructuring of our ancient tax code, which applies a fair and equitable measure for all. So that everybody pays something and that only the lowest of incomes pays zero. No more subsidies deductions or any of the pleasures unions get, or any special interest groups—everybody pays?

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